Afghan enthusiast realises his dream of flying in homemade microlight

Sabir Shah (left), from the dicey province of Ghazni in Afghanistan, with his homemade microlight. Photograph: Jon Boone for the Guardian

Sabir Shah takes off – after Kabul International declines – in aircraft built from bits of rickshaw and a secondhand Toyota

Sabir Shah (left), from the dicey province of Ghazni in Afghanistan, with his homemade microlight. Photograph: Jon Boone for the Guardian

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 December 2011 17.52 GMT

—–They think differently now. But as a member of the Hazara ethnic minority, he thinks his triumph has not gained the deserved accolades.

“[Hamid] Karzai went on TV holding a can of Pepsi, saying it was made in Afghanistan and as a nation we should be proud of that,” he said. “But he has not told the nation that Afghanistan has made the first airplane in its history.”……..